Moody’s Investors Service said in a Monday report that the gambling expansion in the Northeast will likely result in more casino closures in Atlantic City. The popular gambling destination saw four of its twelve casinos close doors back in 2014, due to increasing competition in the region.
Experts for the financial services company said in the report that the eight new casinos that are slated to open doors in the Northeast in the next three years will most certainly put the existing facilities into serious risk of closures, particularly the ones in Atlantic City. Moody’s noted that three of the city’s casinos – Caesars, Bally’s, and Trump Taj Mahal, are already facing Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Experts said that more gambling venues in Atlantic City are likely to close doors in the years to come as a number of them are currently struggling to expand their businesses, not to mention that the additional competition will further complicate the issues operators are facing.
Over the past year, it has become clear that at least eight new gambling facilities will open doors in the region by the end of 2018. Massachusetts, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York are each expecting to have at least one new casino within their borders. With the new venues, the existing ones in Rhode Island, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York are also to be affected in a negative manner due to the growing market in the Northeast and the increased competition.
Moody’s analysts said in their report that MGM National Harbor, Maryland’s multi-billion new casino resort, which is to open doors in 2016, would hurt the nearby Maryland Live!, and the newest casino in Philadelphia would have a negative effect on the revenues of the existing Sugarhouse and Harrah’s Philadelphia.
Once a fully-fledged casino in Southeastern Massachusetts opens door, Twin River in Rhode Island could see its revenue down by 20%. What is more, four new gambling venues are expected to open doors in the state of New York by 2018, which means that quite a number of issues for the nine existing racinos there.
Yet, despite the expected casino closures in Atlantic City and the overall difficult situation that new casinos are to create in the Northeast, Moody’s experts noted in their report that the upcoming expansion in the region would help manufacturers of gambling equipment. Those will be expected to provide more than 20,000 gaming devices for the new casinos that are to open doors before the end of 2018.
